Craig Prehn

Cowboy, 16 x 23in, pen on paper
Craig Prehn


from Mobile Homes
Craig Prehn

I've been back in New York City now for nearly three weeks, still trying to settle into my life here and to reinvent things just a little. I turned thirty-six two days before Cancers turn into Leos, and have been contemplating the relentless sensitivity and melancholy that makes us what we are: open-hearted or broken-hearted brooders, for better or worse. I almost believe it since I know one when I see one.

I am also making efforts towards putting a twenty-year addiction to cigarettes behind me, which means I am clutching my coffee cup in the morning, sweating, crying, staring into space trying to focus my thoughts, sucking nicotine lozenges, chewing toothpicks, and furtively bumming/buying smokes from strangers on the street when I can't hang in there all the way. Asking everyone I know who might have some wisdom and experience how anyone does this, and some make it sound too easy and some make it sound too hard, but all advice is welcome.

My old friend from Chicago, Craig Prehn, who has succeeded in this area, was visiting this week from his current base in San Francisco. Our earliest memories together consist of printing in the darkroom at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago and cooking bbq and fries in the cramped kitchen of Smoke Daddy's on Division Street in the mid-90s. Our art lives have arrived at many junctures, including a photography exhibition at the Butcher Shop Gallery in the summer of 2000, A Great Midwestern at Heaven Gallery, and Best Midwestern at Jen Bekman Gallery in the summer of 2004, also including work by Peter Haakon Thompson, Alec Soth, Justin Newhall, Deborah Stratman and Susan Boecher. In fact, Craig and Pete took me out for sushi for my thirty-first birthday after we installed that show while I was still living in Minnesota and making trips to New York a half a decade ago.

Craig's "Cowboy" drawing above will be available in Daniel Cooney's next Emerging Artists Auction, and you can find a lot more cool work on his website: Craig Prehn. Besides his recent series of drawings, An American Western, which reference photographic snapshots and depict the sense of independence, severity and stark beauty of the American West; I am also a fan of his Mobile Homes. These simple snapshots of the exteriors of these colorful vehicles bring to mind the everyday Americana that seduced Photo-Realist painters in the 1970s - some of the only artwork I love as much as I love photography.

On that note, there are some fascinating observations about the art-historical context of the Photo-Realists and their influence on photographers in an essay called "Keeping It Real: Photorealism" by Philip Gefter in the recently released collection of his critical writings, Photography After Frank.

It is worth noting that Stephen Shore and William Eggleston, pioneers of color photography in the early 1970s, borrowed, consciously or not, from the Photo-Realists. Their photographic interpretation of the American vernacular - gas stations, diners, parking lots - is foretold in Photo-Realist paintings that preceded their pictures. (page 42)

"Not only do these artists have great technical skill, but they are the great depicters of pure Americana," says Barrett White, a former contemporary specialist at Christie's who is now the director of the New York branch of Haunch of Venison gallery. "This is not a gimmicky art but in fact a very important movement. It is the conclusion of Pop art in the same way that Color-Field painting is the conclusion of Abstract Expressionism." (pages 42-43)

If I were to win the lottery and to become an art collector, besides adding more work by artist friends to what I have traded with them over the years, I could imagine myself living with Photo-Realist paintings and not much else, except maybe some books and sunlight and a sexy hairless sphinx like the one I just cat-sat in Cobble Hill. It's a nice fantasy, in any case.

In the meantime, I am happy to report that I scraped up just enough funds through some much-needed labor last week and can finally take my film from my trip to Texas to the lab for processing tomorrow, so please keep your fingers crossed for me on all fronts.


The Butcher Shop exhibition postcard, 2000: Ian Adams, Aaron Brewer, Liza Queen, David Smith, Craig Prehn, Dara Greenwald, Tema Stauffer, Katherine Syroboyarsky, Sheila Manson, Suzy Poling, Tom Colley, Joeff Davis


Craig Prehn
Brooklyn, NY
August 2009

Project 5

Amador Gallery, ClampArt, Daniel Cooney Fine Art, Foley Gallery and Sasha Wolf Gallery are collaborating on a series of projects starting this fall. The galleries, referred to here as Project 5, will begin their collaboration with a portfolio of 5 images by 5 artists, one from each of the participating Project 5 galleries to be released on September 15. The portfolios will be released in an edition of 30 and will provide collectors the opportunity to start a relationship with five different artists and galleries at the same time.

All images will be unique to the portfolio - made specifically by the participating artists for this project. The artists included in the first portfolio are: Olaf Otto Becker from Amador, Jill Greenberg from ClampArt, Stuart O'Sullivan from Daniel Cooney, Thomas Allen from Foley, and Guido Castagnoli from Sasha Wolf.

Another exciting collaboration will be a monthly series of Artist's Salons that will alternate between Project 5's galleries. The first salon will be held at Daniel Cooney Fine Art on Saturday, September 26th at 3pm and will feature four emerging artists presenting their latest bodies of work. Participating artists are: Timothy Briner, Yola Monakhov, Jessica Dimmock, and Cara Phillips.

Project 5 is also introducing a series of group portfolio reviews for artists to receive constructive criticism and to establish an ongoing dialogue about their work with art world professionals.

To apply for Project 5’s Portfolio Review, please send:
- A written description of your work
- A biography that outlines your education and professional experience.
- A link to your website, if you have one.
- 10 jpegs sent either in a zip file or attached to an email (or series of emails). The jpgs should be 100 dpi and 6 inches at the largest dimension.

Project 5’s Portfolio Review will consist of three 20-minute reviews with three of Project 5’s gallerists. Great consideration will be given to the matching of gallery owners and artists based on the strengths and experience of each. After the formal reviews, there will be a social hour for all of the participating artists and reviewers to meet one another and share contacts.

Deadline for receipt of materials for this review will be September 6th and the artists will be notified of acceptance by September 9th. A $250 check made out to Project 5 will be due by September 12th.

Please direct any questions to info@project5group.com or to any of the galleries involved.

Homeland

Boy on the Corner
2005
copyright Brett Bell

I'm back in NYC cooling off in the mere eighty degrees temperatures after nearly a month straight in the hundreds - hoping the film that I brought back from Texas survived the heat, and eventually, some new images will begin to emerge.

Tonight, I am celebrating my return to the city with the opening of Homeland: Portraits of America's Queer Youth at Leslie/Lohman Gallery, including work by Molly Landreth and my very dear friend, Brett Bell.

According to the press release, Homeland: Portraits of America's Queer Youth is an exhibition that explores how GLBTQ youth from rural or suburban areas find and/or create community. In many locations across the United States, young gay, lesbian and trans people are geographically isolated from major centers of queer culture.

The work of photographers Brett Bell (of Missouri) and Molly Landreth (of Washington State) exemplify this challenging experience. With roots in rural Missouri, Brett Bell created a body of work that calls upon friends and acquaintances to express personal childhood experiences with longing and sexuality. Photographer Molly Landreth, in contrast, journeyed through America in search of queer people and documented their lives. In their juxtaposition, these images depict subjects, both real and fictional, that help create a picture of what it means to be queer in America today.

Homeland: Portraits of America's Queer Youth
The Photography of Molly Landreth and Brett Bell

Leslie/Lohman Gallery
26 Wooster Street

opening reception: Thursday July 16th, 6-8pm
thru October 10, 2009

Found in Austin

arthouse

Yesterday afternpon, I stopped by my favorite art space in Austin, The Arthouse at the Jones Center, to take a look at the current exhibition, New American Talent: The Twenty-fourth Exhibition curated by Hamza Walker. I first discovered the Arthouse during the summer of 2007 and wrote about that year's New American Talent show on my blog.

I didn't find as much good photography in this year's show, though I did like some black and white images of families shot by Amy Grappell accompanying a video piece. The other two photo series on exhibit involved considerably more stylization, campiness and staging. Amy's work is straightforward and curious - evoking early work by Bill Owens of families in suburbia.

Besides showing work by emerging artists, one of the coolest things about the Arthouse is the architecture of the space itself and its history. In the 1920's, the Arthouse was a thriving movie theatre on Congress Avenue, the Queen Theatre, which then became a Lerner's department store in the 1950's. Now a sleek contemporary art space, the Arthouse is currently undergoing a major expansion which will include three new galleries, two artists' studios, a 90-seat community/screening room, and a 5,500 square foot rooftop with a movie screen. Enough to make even Minneapolis and New York jealous.

The Arthouse also has a blog, THE ARTHOUSE BLOG, which is now listed in the Artist Resources section of Culturehall's homepage.

Pictured above:

"Space Suit Form with a Burden of Platonic Solid Talismans," 2009, Garland Felder

"The Kings of Hearts," 2008, Stephanie Bernstein

Texas State University

Damn - it is HOT down here. I drove out to Texas State University in San Marcos this morning with photographers and photo professors, Barry Stone and Ben Ruggerio, to give a talk about my work to a group of photo classes and to participate in a critique for Barry's summer intensive course.

As someone who is trying to shoot work in Texas, it was interesting for me to get an idea of what kinds of things Texans are photographing in their own region. At one point, we looked a work by a young woman who is shooting drag queens alongside work by a young man who is shooting Mormon missionaries. Both are hoping to portray their subjects in a sympathetic light. We also looked at interiors of a Baptist church, southern landscapes reminiscent of Walker Evans and William Eggleston, and a series of male nudes in lingerie quite unlike anything my green eyes have seen before.

Took an afternoon siesta in the A/C ... now I'm going swimming.

Matt Olson

A humble homage to one of my favorite photographers, Andrew Bush, and one of my favorite bloggers, Matt Olson. Matt is the brain and passion behind ROLU, a fantastic blog about art, architecture and design that has gained an international audience.

Matt and I are old pals from the four and a half years that I lived in Minneapolis. His background is in music, and I collaborated with his minimalist ensemble, Smattering, on two multi-media events at the Cowles Conservatory of the Walker Art Center.

I finally got to see Matt for the first time in fours years after corresponding through emails and keeping up with one another's blogs. It has been extraordinary to see his landscape and design company, rosenlof/lucas, grow and thrive along with his writing and documentation of art and design on his blog. Matt's enthusiasm for artists and designers is expansive and infectious, and I find myself discovering and appreciating all kinds of things that might never otherwise land on my radar.

Today is my last day in Minneapolis, and tonight, I fly back to Austin. I've had a great time catching up with friends here like Matt. And thanks to heavy doses of Caladryl, Benadryl, Hydrocortisone Cream, and Prednisone - I am almost human again - hoping I can survive the next few weeks back down there in the woods and water.

The latest from TX ...

I might have the swine flu. Or malaria. I definitely have poison ivy. I'm covered with itchy bug bites. I'm running high fevers and coughing and sniffling. My muscles are killing me. I stayed in bed for nearly two days.

I am flying to Minneapolis tomorrow - yay!

Snow's

Thirty-six hours after my flight was originally scheduled to leave LGA, I finally touched down in Austin last night with lighting bolts in the summer sky and one hundred degree heat and humidity.

My brother drove us to Snows's BBQ in Lexington to kick things off Texas-style bright and early this morning. Snow's is only open on Saturdays, and ever since the Texas Monthly and then The New Yorker exposed this little shack as the best BBQ in Texas, the brisket disappears by 10am.

Hershey above cooked the meat, and we put away several pounds of beef brisket, pork ribs and chicken. Afterwards, I watched my nephew snuggle with a baby calf in Snow's backyard, and I just might stick to smoothies for the rest of the month.

culturehall news

Smile When You Say Texas, (Clyde)
Austin, TX
2008
copyright Barry Stone


Turkey, Dyer Automotive, Highway 71
Austin, TX
2007
copyright Barry Stone


Draper, VA
2008
copyright Mark Burnette


Forrest City, AR
2007
copyright Mark Burnette

culturehall has recently added two new photographers to its community of artists, Barry Stone and Mark Burnette. Barry Stone is a former colleague of mine at the ICP who now lives in Austin and teaches at Texas State University in San Marcos, where I will be giving a short talk and participating in a critique for one of his classes at the end of June.

Barry's work is currently being shown at Privateer Gallery in Brooklyn in a group exhibition, Haunts, on view thru July 12th. I made it over to the gallery to see his prints during Bushwick Open Studios this past weekend, and I also look forward to seeing more of Barry's work in a two-person exhibition with Jonathon Faber called Broken Gold in the Courtyard Galley at the University of Texas at Austin on view thru August 28th. Barry Stone's portfolio can be found here: Barry Stone

I am very excited that Mark Burnette has also created a portfolio of his images for culturehall. I mentioned Mark's first trip to New York City in a previous blog post, and he has included one of his images shot in Brooklyn in his portfolio. We are happy to discover an artist living far outside of the urban art spheres who brings a compelling vision to culturehall's community. I first became intrigued with Mark's photographs and writing through his blog, Condition's Uncertain, and the relationship we have established is a testament to me of the internet as a platform for exchanging ideas and forming bonds in the arts.

culturehall has also added some new links to art sites we like in the Artists Resources section of our homepage. One of my favorite places to discover photographers and read excellent writing about their work is American Suburb X - the brainchild of a photographer based in California, Doug Rickard. His site includes interviews as well as evocative essays about photographers accompanying selections of their work. We are looking forward to including some of Doug's own photography when he contributes a portfolio to culturehall sometime in the near future.

We have listed blogs authored by two highly energetic art collectors based in New York City, Ruben Natal-San Miguel of ARTMostfierce and Mike of Modern Art Obsession. Ruben is everywhere and knows everyone and shares some of that art world love with us almost every day - his deepest passion for those emerging. I have especially appreciated Ruben's fantastic series of interviews with figures in the arts, The Current State of the Art Market, in which he raises insightful questions about how we are faring the economic crisis. Mike, who is similarly "obsessed," works on Wall Street by day and writes blunt and irreverent commentary about the art world from the insider's perspective of an avid collector.

Additionally, we are happy to list some other eclectic blogs about the arts: Baltimore Interview from Baltimore; ArtsPreserve from Nebraska; Eva Lake from Portland; Roman Blog from Philadelphia; Art Observed from New York; Art for Humans, TRYHARDER and Triple Canopy from Los Angeles; Lee Grant from Australia; GaliBlog from Norway; eyeCONTACT from New Zealand; and Alan the Gallant and Pop Pervert from Spain.

I am headed to Austin this week to focus on personal projects for the next month. David Andrew Frey and I will resume adding artists and artist resources to culturehall later in July. We appreciate the efforts made by all of those involved these past few months in making culturehall a new presence on the internet for promoting artists.

Motor City

Douglass Projects
Detroit, MI
2009
copyright Will Steacy

I grew up less than three hours away from Detroit, and the only reason I ever went to Detroit was for the Detroit Tigers. My dad and I were baseball fans, and the sounds of Tiger's games hung over our backyard in the summertime, mingling with the fire flies and crickets and humidity. I collected baseball cards and spent hours in my bedroom carefully organizing pictures of grown up men in plastic sleeves and Trapper Keepers. I was especially proud of my collection of Tigers - Lou Whitaker, Alan Trammell, Kirk Gibson - sly and slick and rough-around-the-edges, in that order. My neighbor, a sports memorabilia collector, was endeared by my tomboyish adulation and took me into his dark, wood-paneled, shrine-like basement to give me an autographed baseball signed by every Tiger along with Alan Trammell's sweat-stained cap from when Detroit won the 1984 World Series.

Believe me, in later years, I wished I still had some of those baseball cards and souvenirs. I could have paid some rents with those rookie-turned-superstars and Motor City heroes. But I blew it in the summer of 1992 when I advertised my collection in the classifieds of the Kalamazoo Gazette and sold my cards for a mere $200 to a collector who played dumb - like he had no clue how great these cards were - he was just buying them for his son. I knew he was ripping me off but I needed that cold hard cash to get on a train with my cover boyfriend from high school and ride across the country to visit my girlfriends from college.

Except for the Tigers, Detroit was a wasteland. It was like Gary, Indiana - where you rolled up the windows and locked the doors and wondered how people lived there and breathed the air and how so many blocks of houses and storefronts could be vacant and boarded-up. It was apocalyptic, sad, scary. Some of the drug trade and gang activity that passed between Chicago and Detroit stuck around in Kalamazoo as well. Sure, it was a quaint college town, but we had our share of drugs and poverty and shootings now and then. One of my pastimes in high school was driving the family car through the saddest neighborhoods in town and up a curvy road that I called The Crazy Street near the abandoned insane asylum even before I fancied myself a photographer.

Photographer, Will Steacy, has been making some trips to The Real Midwest this year to walk the streets of Detroit. And not just Detroit, but Philly and Atlantic City and Los Angeles as well. Like the tough and tender-hearted private investigator in the books my dad read when he needed a break from Emile Durkheim and Max Weber, Will is taking a hard look at American cities, and it's not a pretty picture.

See for yourself in Will's exhibition opening tomorrow night, Down These Mean Streets, at Gulf & Western Gallery.

And congratulations to my recently retired dad who will be honored the same evening for his three and a half decades of devotion to teaching at Kalamazoo College - yes, my parents read my blog from time to time!

And last but not least, Daniel Cooney is hosting an exhibition of emerging photographers, Some Place Like Home, with a reception on Thursday. Participating photographers include Jun Ahn, Jordan Colbert, Eva Fazzari, Jessica Hendrix, Lali Khalid, Sang-Min Kwak, Rachel Langosch, Sean Park, and Alice Rodriguez.

Will Steacy
DOWN THESE MEAN STREETS

Gulf & Western Gallery
New York University
721 Broadway

opening reception Thursday June 4th, 6-8pm


Some Place Like Home
Exhibition of Photography

Daniel Cooney Fine Art Gallery
511 West 25th Street, Suite 506

opening reception Thursday June 4th, 6-9pm

For Meaghan and Carlos

For Elsie

Tonight

Toys R Us
Cleveland, OH
2009
copyright Brian Ulrich


Sunset Park
2005
copyright Debora Mittelstaedt

Two great shows opening tonight: Brian Ulrich's Thrift and Dark Stores at Julie Saul Gallery and NYMPHOTO Presents at Sasha Wolf Gallery. I'm going to do my very best to catch them both.

Brian has been documenting the excesses and left-overs of American consumerism over the last decade, and his most recent and eerie images portray stores now dark and desolate in the economic down-turn. Read more in a piece about his work by Lyle Rexler in Photograph Magazine: Brian Ulrich.

NYMPHOTO will be exhibiting another round of work by women photographers, this time selected from an open call for entries. I am excited to finally meet German photographer, Debora Mittelstaedt, who will be exhibiting her dreamy and enigmatic photograph of a pair of red-heads - a brother and sister or a young couple in love?

Other photographers include Jennifer Boomer, Livia Corona, Katrina d'Autremont, Jen Davis, Lizzie Gorfaine, Victoria Hely-Hutchinson, Megan Maloy, Tiana Markova-Gold, Debora Mittelstaedt, Beatrix Reinhardt, Anna Skladmann, Malou van Breevoort, Corinne Vionnet, Sophia Wallace, Susan Worsham, Nina Büsing Corvallo, Rona Chang, Candace Gottschalk, Maria Passarotti and Jane Tam.

Brian Ulrich
Thrift and Dark Stores

Julie Saul Gallery
535 West 22nd Street

Opening Reception: Thursday May 28th, 5:30-7pm


NYMPHOTO Presents

Sasha Wolf Gallery
10 Leonard Street

Opening Reception: Thursday May 28th, 6-8pm

For Pete

For Kersten